In today’s military, C3 (command, control, communications) includes being able to forward deploy complete IT systems, ranging up to entire datacenters. Obviously, there are many issues that have to be dealt with in order to deploy that kind of IT processing power into environments that are significantly more hostile than where datacenters usually reside.

One of the research programs that the DoD has in progress to deal with these environmental issues is TROPEC – Transformative Reductions in Operational Energy Consumption. The goal of this program is to identify technologies that will reduce fuel use in expeditionary outposts. Generating power requires fuel, and the power requirements for the non-IT load of a datacenter can be significant, especially the power used to maintain the operational environment of the IT load equipment.

To that end, the DoD has selected the Asetek Inside Server Air Conditioning (ISAC) system for evaluation in the TROPEC project. The ISAC removes 100% of the server generated heat from within the server, completely eliminating the need for any variation of the tradition CRAC unit found in most datacenters. The ISAC system adds two benefits; the first is that the liquid cooling system can remove 100% of the heat generated in the server from the datacenter. The second is that because there is no need for air movement external to the liquid cooled servers, the quality of the air provided to the datacenter is no longer an issue; there is no air exchange between the liquid cooled servers and the datacenter.

The selection of ISAC follows the decision by the DoD to use the Asetek RackCDU system (a full rack liquid cooling setup) in the retrofit of an existing DoD datacenter. ISAC is the next stage of liquid cooling in the RackCDU product line.

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